This Week's Story

Without stories we lose our identity.

This Week’s Story relives American history and the Bible through brief inspiring stories presented on mp3 audio recordings and text for reading.

Do you remember? part one

“Jim, we Americans are forgetting how to work together, how to argue, and how to respect each other; yet, we have powerful stories to help us! They can prick our brains and hearts, show us where we have been and where we can go. Without them we will lose our identity as individuals and Americans!”

Jim Morris, manager of KJMB radio station, listened to me and said, “Do you have a story with you?”

“Yes, I do. When I was teaching seniors at the local public high school, the English textbook had a Bible story. The textbook had the translation from the King James Bible, which was published in 1611. My students had trouble understanding the language; so I told the story to them in everyday language. They liked it. I have written a sample for you.”

“Let’s record it, Barbara.”

We did. That happened in 2012. As of June 2017, there have been 183 stories written. They are broadcast or received by website

into 130 plus countries. I am grateful for each person who listens and reads them, for donors, and the team who helps with what is now called This Week’s Story. The stories are from American history and the Bible, which was a primary source of education in American history.

Today I would like to read some story excerpts. Can you identify the story or a main person from the story?

“Sir, we are not spies! We have come to Egypt to buy grain. Our families are starving in a famine and live many miles away in Canaan. We are brothers, and we are honest.”

“Mockery! You are here to discover if famine has made Egypt weak. You, Hebrew fools! Egypt is the greatest nation in the world.”

Do you recognize the voices of Joseph’s brothers, from the book of Genesis in the Bible?

Here is another story excerpt.

“How do I convince people that I am a good doctor and have a right as a woman to have patients? Plenty of people need a doctor’s attention in New York City where I am living. My qualifications are excellent. Unfortunately, in the eyes of the public, I am a disgrace to womanhood!”

You know this woman as Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell. She became the first woman medical doctor practicing in the United States.

Let us go to a frontier story.

“I know many true stories about my father. If you’ve seen movies about him or read tall tales about him, you may need more facts. Father did not scalp his enemies or wear a coonskin cap. He respected many Indians. He told one of his grandchildren, ‘While it may have been necessary to fight them, I am very sorry that I ever killed a Shawnee. They have been kinder to me and kept their word more often than the white people I know.’”

Daniel Boone’s words were not accepted by some of his contemporaries.

Let us visit a scientist.

“Wow! The killer microbes must be passed from the mama ticks to their eggs. The deadly microbe is in each baby tick, when it hatches.”

He continued his experiments. The killer microbe was named Pyrosoma bigeminum. Theobald wrote a report that satisfied doubting scientists. The newsbuster was: Get rid of the insect and the disease disappears.

But how? No modern insecticides existed.”

Scientist Theobald Smith unlocked the mystery of the Texas fever.

Did you recognize the story selections? I sure enjoyed doing the research for the complete stories.

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